HP Chromebook 11 Review: A Well-Built & Affordable Laptop

Google has come some ways from the Cr-48 to the Chromebooks we have today.  Now the company has enlisted several manufacturers to craft laptops to run their Chrome OS.  Their presence is definitely growing since they made their price points more reasonable at the $199 to $250 w/ last year’s models.  So much that they are now being used in 22% of the US school districts and the entire country of Malaysia has adopted Chromebooks into their school systems as well.

Set to replace the popular Samsung Series 5 Chromebook from last year comes the new 11.6inch HP one made w/ Google.  Marketed as their new laptop for everyone, their new entry-level Chromebook has arrived.  Offering an affordable solution to cloud-based computing.   Does Google have another hit on its hands or is this another hit on Amazon’s best seller’s list?

Google & HP put together a great laptop for this price point.  It is outfitted w/ a magnesium frame that it covered w/ a plastic shell and like most plastic shells, this is quite the fingerprint magnet.  It is a pretty seamless design as it offers no visible fans, screws, or even speaker grills.  The keyboard layout is the same as all Chromebooks as the keys feel great to type on.  The touchpad feels great too but could be a bit more responsive but won’t stop you from getting things done.  And like the Pixel, HP has a similar light bar on the outside of the top shell that shines a Google’s colors: Green, Yellow, Red, & Blue.  All of that inside of a super lightweight laptop that weighs about 2.3lbs.  HP crafted a fine machine with this one.

Handling all of your visuals is an 11.6inch IPS display w/ 1366 x 768 resolution.  Don’t let the resolution get you down, this is a very bright screen that supplies you w/ great quality for its size.  Also with this being an IPS display, you can easily pull off a 176-degree wide viewing angle – no problem.  This is one of the areas where HP’s entry-level Chromebook trumps Samsung’s from last year.

The only ports are on one side: 1 jack for audio, 2 USB 2.0, & micro-USB for charging

The HP 11 is powered by a dual-core Samsung Exynos 5250 processor coupled w/ 2GB of RAM & 16GB SSD.  It definitely handles the lighter tasks quite well.  After hearing that HP’s 14inch model got equipped w/ Intel Haswell CPU, I was definitely a bit jealous.  They may have seen this as overkill but I think this would have truly benefited form the faster processor & longer battery life.  There was bit of a struggle pulling photos from a flash drive.  Other than that, every task handled online performed pretty smooth.

Inside of the latest Chromebook lies a 30Wh battery w/ suggested 6 hours of use. Upon much usage that varied, I got anywhere from 4 to just over 5 hours of juice in one charge.  My usage consisted of editing review photos on PicMonkey w/ a good 10-12 tabs open and occasionally streaming the latest albums on Google Play Music All Access.  Many Android users will love the fact HP decided to use a micro USB port for charging.  Requiring you to only carry one charger to keep you powered up.

Unfortunately, much hasn’t changed w/ Chrome OS since we last handled one.  Google did however beef up its offline capabilities for Gmail & Docs to continue to automatically save to the cache until you connect back to an Internet connection.  Definitely a nice touch when traveling (even though Google gives those who buy one 12 Gogo Wi-Fi passes).  Whatever the OS doesn’t have support for (which is a lot outside of Google’s built-in services), you will have go hunting within their app store.

Don’t go looking for speaker grills as HP equipped this w/ digitally-tuned speakers that omit audio from underneath the keyboard.  This blows last year’s model out of the water in regards to sound quality and clarity.  You get pretty full sound for music, movies, and media from this laptop.  Quite impressive!

Google + HP touted a fanless design as one might ask: what about this laptop’s dreaded heat output?  Damn-near non-existent.  This is one of the 1st laptops to pull this off regardless of specs.  No warm laps over here! Kudos to you guys.

 “This is a great entry-level laptop for those invested in Google services & consumers who just need the surf the web.”

I admit.  I like this feat by HP but the Pixel has spoiled me.  I’m still waiting for a mid-range version of the Pixel to enter existence along w/ Chrome OS to further mature in its abilities.  Many regular computer users have already made their choice of Mac or Windows.  Chrome OS is a compelling alternative but there are some key things lacking to be an actual competitor.  Once those things come into place, Windows laptops should start sweating.  Until then, this is a great entry-level laptop for those invested in Google services & consumers who just need the surf the web.

No screws, fans, vents, or speaker grills spotted

Depending on your need, this could go either way.  If you need a 2nd computer for your home for your web browsing, YouTube, Hulu, or Netflix needs – you can grab this for under $300.  If not, then you may require a machine w/ more power and longer battery life.